233 Million Women May Be Without Birth Control by 2015

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More women are using birth control worldwide, but an unmet need
for contraception persists, a new study shows.

Researchers estimated the
contraceptive use and unmet contraceptive need among married
or cohabiting women of reproductive age for 194 countries between
1990 and 2010. The researchers defined an unmet need as the
proportion of women who would like to delay or stop childbearing
but who are not using any method of contraception to prevent
pregnancy.

Global use of contraceptives by these women increased from 55
percent to 63 percent over the period from 1990 to 2010, while
unmet need decreased from 15 percent to 12 percent, the results
showed. Despite this, the researchers project that 233 million
women will have an unmet need for
modern birth control by 2015.

"The changes over time that we see — in terms of increases in
contraceptive prevalence and reductions in need — are in the
right direction," study leader Ann Biddlecom, a fertility and
family planning researcher in the United Nations Department for
Economic and Social Affairs, told LiveScience. "But there are
still parts of the world where there remains a high level of
unmet need for family planning."

The biggest
surge in contraceptive use between 1990 and 2010 occurred in
southern Asia and eastern, northern and southern Africa. Birth
control usage was also high in developed countries, but decreased
slightly in Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

Other areas showed a very low rate of contraceptive use. In
central and western Africa fewer than 1 in 5 married women of
reproductive age used any kind of birth control as of 2010.

The study shows the discrepancies of access to contraception in
different subregions of Africa, Biddlecom said. Eastern and
central Africa had similar rates of contraceptive use in 1990,
but by 2010, the rate of use had grown twice as much in eastern
Africa.

Most of the rise was in modern methods of contraception (such as
condoms
or hormonal forms of birth control), as opposed to traditional
methods such as withdrawal before ejaculation or the rhythm
method. Worldwide, 9 out of 10 married women using birth control
were using a modern form in 2010. [ Birth
Control Quiz: Test Your Contraception Knowledge ]

As contraceptive use has grown, the unmet need for family
planning has fallen. Even so, about 146 million married women of
reproductive age still had unmet need for birth control in 2010,
the researchers estimated, or 221 million women if those using
traditional methods are included. More than 20 percent of married
women in eastern, central and western Africa had an unmet need
for family planning in 2010.

"Things have gotten somewhat better, but the reality is we have a
ways to go," obstetrician/gynecologist Ronald Burkman of Tufts
University School of Medicine, who was not involved in the study,
told LiveScience.

Where there were gaps in the data on contraceptive use, the
researchers used data from nearby countries to model the missing
information. The study only looked at married or cohabiting
women, but unmarried women tend to have even higher contraceptive
needs, according to the researchers. In order to meet the
worldwide need for contraceptive methods, increased investment
will be necessary, they say.

The findings were detailed today (March 11) in the journal The
Lancet.